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Story:Star Trek: Conflict/Dwells in Madness
A rendezvous with a renegade Federation cargo vessel goes awry and the crews of the ''Enterprise''-C and the ''Admonitor'' find themselves on a planet ruled by a mysterious cult who seek to awake a titanic avatar of destruction. Summary Chapter One The ''Enterprise'' and the ''Admonitor'' are docked, pooling each other's resources due to the fact that their supplies are dangerously short. Both ships are on auto-pilot, and the crew are preparing for a well-deserved "R'n'R". Only a skeletal crew is allowed to remain awake at all times, keeping the ship active, rotating every second hour. On the ''Admonitor'', Captain Young insists that she keep all the maggots awake for all the night, but also adds that she has to stay awake with them, since they can't be trusted with running her ship. None of the crewmen of the Admonitor are happy with this arrangement, but they know better than to question. Nox, however, is extremely weary. He tells the captain that he has to rest or else he might be unfit to perform his duties. Though she initially rejects his petition, Edward Shield, who is also staying up on his ship, insists and Young relents. Nox basically falls asleep the moment he enters his quarters. He sleeps for five hours, restfully and without incident: but just before the sixth hour (when he is to be awakened for his duties), he begins to dream. :In his dream, there is a dark forest, the trees bare of their leaves. A great light appears before him. He runs towards it, but it begins to move. He follows the orb of light for a great time, until it coalesces into the form of a planet. The planet is mostly oceanic from its appearance, with black rock land-masses on it. Not exactly sure why, he reaches up and touches the orb. But it melts away into a black hole; but it isn't a true black hole since things are coming out of it, and he - Nox - is not being affected by its presence. The things are four, black, ravenous alien monsters similar to the . They begin to chase Nox, who, naturally, starts to run. They continue to relentlessly hunt him down, and though he grows weary, they do not tire. He trips, and the monsters almost catch him... Nox returns to waking and storms madly onto the Bridge, muttering an unintelligible phrase in multiple dialects. Young orders him to go to Sick Bay at once, but he tells her to beware of "the Thing that Cannot Be Named" before she has him forcibly taken off the Bridge. She continues her communique with Shield, apologizing for the "annoying interruption". Shield thinks that there might be some worth to what he's saying, but Young says that he's probably had too much Romulan ale and is suffering under its intoxicating affects, despite the fact that Shield reminds her that Romulans are more tolerant of its affects than humans. Dismissing this, she asks him about this meeting with the , which he reminds her will be peaceful only. He assures her that , who is friendly to their New Insurrectionist movement, has agreed to meet them there with supplies on his ship. While they are talking, the ships' computers inform each captain that they have come out of warp at the coordinates of their meeting. They arrive, but find the wreckage of the . Chapter Two Both ships go to yellow alert, the Senior Officers are woken up, and scans of the debris are carried out. The ship bears heavy photon and phaser damage, suggesting that it had become the victim of an attack. The anti-matter phasic-residue left on the wreckage suggests another Federation-type starship had been the attacker. Fortunately, scans discover a Class-2 probe left in the wreckage of the ''Emma'', which includes a recorded message. The probe is beamed onto the ''Enterprise'' and the message is played for both ships. :The message details the events leading up to the destruction of the [[USS Emma|''Emma]]. It is attacked by a ship, identified only as 'Trela, and sustains heavy damage. In an attempt to save the lives of his crew, surrenders the ship and allows the alien crew of the 'Trela' beam onto the [[USS Emma|''Emma]]. The ploy works, and and some of his crew beam onto the Trela just as the alien crew beams onto the ''Emma''. They leave the cargo behind, which gets scuttled along with the ship, and the log then ends. The Trela's warp trail still fresh, Captain Shield and Captain Young discuss whether or not they should rescue the crew. K'hallA says that, normally, prisoners deserved no honor: however, since they managed to capture the enemy ship which, according to her, "would have meant a battle in bloodshed and honor", she believes that they are worth being rescued. Though none of the other officers have a reason so blatantly Klingon, they all agree to the rescue of the . Both ships follow the warp trail to Sector 107-A ("A" for the which discovered it). The warp trail leads into a gaseous cloud which seems to be orbiting a gravity centrum, though there are no stars in the area. The crew fears a , but their fears are far from grounded. Spyrak tells Shield that a would have pulled a gas substance into itself, and therefore it must be a star, even though there are no stars in the area. The Vulcan Science Officer quotes another famous Vulcan science officer who served aboard a Federation vessel named Enterprise by saying that "if you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains – however improbable – must be the truth." Hoping that this is true, the captains decide to fly into the gas cloud to see if they can find the Trela on the other side. Upon leaving the cloud, they discover, not the Trela, but a class-M planet. It is mostly water, with a land-mass made up of black shale, granite and volcanic rock. There are life-signs on the planet, with post-warp civilization and technology. The captains believe that this is the planet where the Trela came to after the fire-fight, and they prepare to beam down to the planet in order to find the missing crew of the . Shield, Young, K'hallA, Loghri and seven ensigns beam down onto the shore of the super-continent. They keep open communications with the ships above (Lieutenant Rookwood commanding the ''Enterprise''-C and Nox - having convinced Captain Young that he's fit for duty - commanding the ''Admonitor''), and get bad news: the planet's cloud coverage prevents the transporter from beaming up or down to the planet's surface. This means that they'll have to wait approximately three days time before they can hope to leave. They all hope that none of them get into life-threatening situations before then, but K'hallA states that any situation would be welcomed by her. Chapter Three Making their way along the rocky coasts, they make for a large city made of black stone. It reminds some of a gothic-esque castle, and they fear that there might be some kind of danger awaiting them. Just before it, they come upon a frightening site: an ancient, sea-washed statue made of rock that depicts some kind of monster with an octopus-head and dragon's wings. The beast's eerie, eroded features notwithstanding, it seems to be a living statue with eyes that follow them. Just then, a savage-looking man runs weakly at the statue, armed with a large mallet and attempts to bash the image. But the tool does not leave even a dent. Shield tries to ask him why he is doing this, but the man, who seems to know Shield, tells him to leave immediately, or else he too will become prey to the " ." Just then, several hooded and masked holy-men approach and kill the savage-looking man with a blast from their scepters (which bear the image of an octopus upon the head). However, they are more than cordial to the others, and invite them to stay at their capitol city: R'lyeh, after which their planet is named. Though Shield is somewhat wary about them, especially since they are hooded, veiled and masked and robed so that no trace of their skin shows at all, he accepts their offer and he and his comrades follow them to their city. Here they are treated as honored guests and given fine rooms in the best buildings. However, they neither see nor hear much of the people here. At night, eerie chanting can be heard, but they are not allowed out of their rooms. In the morning, they discover two of the ensigns have disappeared. Chapter Four They soon discover that they are trapped. The robbed ones do not visit them, nor are they ever seen. Stuck inside their palaces, they have become prisoners of these people. This is affirmed when K'hallA, acting especially more violent than usual, breaks out of one of the rooms and attacks one of the robed people. After taking off his hood and veil it is revealed why they are concealed: to deceive humanoids into thinking they are their fellows. These people are roughly humanoid, but they have strange squid-like heads. The one they subdue tells them that they are to be sacrificed. Shield, however, does not wish to have him and his crew sacrificed. However, its too late since the planet's clouds naturally prevent beam-out. Using Shield's phaser's power cell and comm-badge, Loghri manufactures a make-shift signal buffer which allows them to communicate through the planet's weather patterns. Young insists that they contact the which they do, and she tells Nox all they know and tells him to be ready to enter the planet's atmosphere to beam them out on the morning of the third day. Almost as soon as she has said this, the transmission ends. Suddenly, strange creatures (appearing different to each person) are heard growling and coming toward them. Eager not to find out what they are, the crew breaks out and sets off running through R'lyeh. But it turns out that the chase was actually a means of leading them into the heart of the city, where they are all captured by more of the squid-creatures, who reveal themselves to be holy-men in service of the "Immortal One." At midnight, they sacrifice two more of the ensigns. Shield asks why they are being kept alive, and one of the priests tells him that, like they did to Johansen (the savage-looking man they killed), they will allow them to be filled with the presence of their master. For the rest of the night, the ceremony continues. But at dawn, the dives into the planet's atmosphere to rescue the crew. But the creature has risen. Chapter Five The beast is a mountainous creature, with a head like an octopus, the hands of a man and huge dragons' wings. It is quite likely the largest thing they have ever seen. Whats worse, they can see within its green eyes the intent to destroy. The priests give themselves to the monster, which picks them up with its hands and tentacles and devours them. The crew tries to fight it, but their phasers do no harm to its massive form. Young calls for Nox to open-fire on it, but the ship's standard weapons do no damage, nor do the S'srellian weaponry. But the beast then turns its attention to the Admonitor, and proves that it is indeed quite powerful when it takes flight after it. Can this beast even fly into space? When all hope seems lost, Nox beams them back aboard the Admonitor and then takes off into space. However, after both parties are beamed onto their own respective ships and they go to warp, Edward Shield takes one last view of the nebula and thinks he can see a great creature rise out of R'lyeh and into the stars. If this beast can actually do so, what can stop it? Or, even worse, IS there any stopping it? And what will happen should another hapless person venture into this area of space and discover this creature...the one that Nox warned them about in his "insane" babbling. In one last moment before the planet disappears, Edward Shield asks the question that has plagued him since he saw the creature deflect their weaponry: :Can it even be destroyed? Category:Star Trek: Conflict Episodes Category:Story Arc: Shield and K'hallA